The Finance Ministry’s Tenders Committee approved on Thursday a proposal from Mekorot National Water Company to establish a desalination plant in Ashdod, the ministry announced in a statement that afternoon. The plant, which will begin providing water in 2013 at a cost of NIS 2.4 per cubic meter, will supply a total of 100 million cubic meters per year and will be completed at the same time as the new desalination facility in Soreq, which will supply 150 million cubic meters per year, according to the statement. After these two plants open, a total of NIS 540 million cubic meters of desalinated water will be available in Israel annually, accounting for 40 percent of the country’s freshwater supply, the ministry said.
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)